Modera Wealth Management LLC Boosts Stake in Alphabet Inc. $GOOG

Modera Wealth Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 0.2% in the second quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 367,465 shares of the information services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 719 shares during the period. Modera Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $65,185,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in GOOG. IFS Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 400.0% in the 2nd quarter. IFS Advisors LLC now owns 150 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $27,000 after acquiring an additional 120 shares during the period. Robbins Farley raised its stake in shares of Alphabet by 60.0% during the second quarter. Robbins Farley now owns 160 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $28,000 after purchasing an additional 60 shares during the last quarter. WestEnd Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 58.7% during the second quarter. WestEnd Advisors LLC now owns 165 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $29,000 after purchasing an additional 61 shares during the period. Fairman Group LLC grew its position in Alphabet by 121.3% in the 2nd quarter. Fairman Group LLC now owns 177 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $31,000 after buying an additional 97 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Greykasell Wealth Strategies Inc. acquired a new position in Alphabet in the 1st quarter valued at $32,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Wolfe Research upped their target price on shares of Alphabet from $290.00 to $350.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Cantor Fitzgerald set a $310.00 target price on shares of Alphabet and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Phillip Securities cut shares of Alphabet from a “strong-buy” rating to a “moderate buy” rating in a research note on Monday, September 8th. Finally, Bank of America increased their price target on shares of Alphabet from $280.00 to $335.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-seven have issued a Buy rating, four have given a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $324.81.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,778 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $245.00, for a total value of $680,610.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer owned 17,293 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,236,785. This represents a 13.84% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, September 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $229.73, for a total value of $7,466,225.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,429,892 shares in the company, valued at $558,219,089.16. This trade represents a 1.32% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold a total of 222,396 shares of company stock worth $54,105,275 over the last quarter. 12.99% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Alphabet Trading Down 2.0%

Shares of GOOG stock opened at $279.70 on Friday. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $251.81 and its 200-day simple moving average is $205.14. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a current ratio of 1.90 and a quick ratio of 1.90. Alphabet Inc. has a 1-year low of $142.66 and a 1-year high of $291.93. The firm has a market cap of $3.38 trillion, a P/E ratio of 27.58, a PEG ratio of 1.86 and a beta of 1.05.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 29th. The information services provider reported $2.87 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.29 by $0.58. The company had revenue of $102.35 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $99.90 billion. Alphabet had a net margin of 32.23% and a return on equity of 36.08%. Alphabet’s revenue was up 15.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $2.12 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 EPS for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 8th will be given a $0.21 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 8th. This represents a $0.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.3%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 8.28%.

About Alphabet

Alphabet Inc offers various products and platforms in the United States, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the Asia-Pacific, Canada, and Latin America. It operates through Google Services, Google Cloud, and Other Bets segments. The Google Services segment provides products and services, including ads, Android, Chrome, devices, Gmail, Google Drive, Google Maps, Google Photos, Google Play, Search, and YouTube.